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Friday, November 04, 2005

Law - Eminent domain in the news [Updated]

"Judge says tire shop will stay put" is the headline to a story today in the Gary Post-Tribune. Some quotes:

LAKE STATION — Lake County Judge Lorenzo Arredondo has put the brakes on the county library board’s attempt to take a Lake Station tire shop’s property. The judge dismissed the condemnation lawsuit the library board brought against Lake Tire Co. owner Len Hedinger to seize property he owns at 1901 Central Ave. The court ruling was announced Wednesday.

Library officials claimed Hedinger’s property was needed to build a $3 million library that would serve residents of both Lake Station and New Chicago. But Arredondo agreed with Magistrate Christina Miller, who found that the library branch could be built without Hedinger’s property. * * *

Miller also wrote that library officials failed to disclose the true intended use of Hedinger’s property. Library officials planned to transfer Hedinger’s land to the city of Lake Station, which owns the adjacent property and hopes to build a municipal complex on it one day.

In a deal reached by Mayor Shirley Wadding, the municipal complex would also include the proposed New Chicago/Lake Station library branch. Architectural drawings provided by the library show that only a fraction of the library’s parking lot would be on Hedinger’s property. The rest of Hedinger’s property would be used by the city for the proposed municipal complex.

But the absence of a binding contract between the city and library board made the goal of a municipal multiple-purpose building speculative at best, Miller said.

"Judge blocks Chicago from buying, razing homes for O'Hare project" is the headline to a story today in the Munster (NW Indiana) Times. Some quotes:
CHICAGO | The city's planned expansion of O'Hare International Airport hit another snag Thursday when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that bars the city from bulldozing homes and businesses and relocating graves.

However, construction work already underway on the $15 billion project -- including work begun last month on a new runway -- can continue, city officials said.

U.S. District Judge David Coar's order follows a request by cemetery owners and the suburbs of Elk Grove Village and Bensenville to halt work in areas where the homes, businesses and graves are located until he considers the opponents' request to stop the project.

The 10-day restraining order applies only to the affected area, where the city plans to remove 2,600 residents, 200 businesses and 1,300 graves to build another runway. The judge's ruling does not affect that phase of the project because that work is not scheduled to begin until late next year at the earliest, said project spokesman Roderick Drew.

What about the Indiana General Assembly's interim legislative Eminent Domain Study Committee. It had its final meeting Oct. 28th, but has not posted its recommendations. Fortunately, Rep. Ryan Dvorak has made the recommendations available at his website.

[Updated] The AP is reporting that:

A congressional vote to restrain local governments from seizing private property for commercial development likely will bolster Statehouse efforts to rein in similar practices in Indiana, a state lawmaker said.

The U.S. House voted 376-38 Thursday to pass a bill that would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.

"I think it makes it a whole lot easier in the state," State Rep. David Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, said, referring to the congressional vote's impact on state efforts to regulate property seizures. Indiana's representatives in the House voted 7-1 for passage. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., did not vote.

The bill, HR 4128, the "Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2005," is available here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 4, 2005 08:49 AM
Posted to General Law Related